


Tell Me What Can I Do

by alicejericho



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 18:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7325164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicejericho/pseuds/alicejericho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's one thing that Kent Parson is sure of, it's that there is nothing about is life that is private. If he was forced to choose a second it would be that there's nothing people won't falsify.</p><p>(5 Times Kent Parson had no control of the narrative + 1 time he had it all.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me What Can I Do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkWaterFalls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWaterFalls/gifts).



1.

Kent always knows when the story crops back up again, not because of some weird intuitive feeling he gets but because his entire team sends him texts consisting solely of the heart-eyes emoji. It happens every few months or so, though this time the gap has been closer to six months for which Kent is grateful, and lasts a few weeks at most before going completely silent again.

Let it be known that Kent Parson, Captain of the Las Vegas Aces, has only met Mia Sorrows twice and is definitely not, nor has he ever been, in a relationship with her.

Just before midday—when he’s had to put his phone back on charge because _seriously the emojis are endless_ —his phone starts to actually ring and he nearly falls face first off the couch in his haste to check the ID.

“Oh,” he says in his most disappointed voice after putting the phone on speaker and laying back down on the couch. “Nicola, I’m expecting a call from my lovely Mia any second I can’t be on the phone with you right now.”

“Maybe we should reconsider the public breakup idea you suggested.”

Kent chuckles. “For someone in PR you’re way too easy to give in to stupid ideas.”

“Your agent and I are both dumbfounded about what to do to stop the rumours. We can’t keep doing this without communication—you and Mia need to actually sit down and talk.”

Kent rolls over and muffles a loud sigh in the couch cushion. He has only met Mia Sorrows twice and it’s enough to know that they have so little in common that he cannot be bothered sitting through a conversation with her about their supposed love life.

He says as much to Nicola and adds, “I thought that was your job anyway. Coordinating with her people and getting this thing locked down.”

“It’d be a lot easier if you were both involved in that conversation.”

His exasperation—his exhaustion, even—is clear when he says, “I just want to play hockey.”

It works, like it always has, and Nicola sighs while she assures him that she will sort it out and that within 24 hours Kent Parson and Mia Sorrows will no longer be a couple. Though, she cannot promise that the relationship will have been stricken from the record as that has proven to be much harder than one would think.

 

* * *

 

2.

Kent’s just sitting in his stall—maybe he’s shirtless, sue him—answering questions about the night’s 5-2 win against Vancouver when he gestures to a guy standing in the back and gets the strangest question he’s received in a while.

“Why do you want to leave Las Vegas when the team’s doing so well with you at the head?”

There’s a solid pause as Kent’s entire face screws up. He rolls the question over in his head but still comes out with “Why do I what?”

“There are a lot of rumours going around that you’re thinking of asking for a trade—to Tampa or Detroit—and I was just wondering why that was.”

Kent scratches the back of his head, his face still scrunched up, the microphones around him get closer and the reporters encroach on his space. Jeff is standing up in his stall, looking at Kent over the heads of the scrum and Kent shakes his head and shrugs at him.

“Why would I want a trade?”

“That’s what we want an answer to.”

“I’ve never wanted a trade? I’ve never even thought about playing hockey anywhere else. I have no idea where those rumours could have come from. And come on guys, really, _Tampa_? Of all places?”

There’s a low hum as the reporters think about what he’s said, a hesitation before some of them chuckle and others throw more trade related questions at him—mostly about teammates and their chance of being traded come the deadline. He answers those questions by saying that he doesn’t want to see anybody go but it’s the nature of the game. He’s then sure to say that he doesn’t know the details of any potential trades because it isn’t any of his business. Someone tries to tell him that it should be his business as the captain.

“I just roll with the punches,” he answers, putting an end to the scrum.

“The fuck’s wrong with Tampa?” Hertz asks. Kent knows that he’s turning up the aggravation in his voice because it’s been six years since his trade from Tampa and he was only there for 17 months.

“Everything,” Kent says solemnly. “Everything is wrong with Tampa.”

-

Three days later after their game against Detroit Kent gets asked how it feels to go up against a team he might be joining in less than a week. Now, Kent doesn’t know why rumours about him stick regardless of how many times they are denied or proven to be wrong but they do stick so he isn’t totally surprised by the questions he receives about the trade—Surprised? No. Annoyed? Yes.

“Look,” he says pointedly. The reporters nearest him straighten up at the sternness of his voice. “I know that people get traded out of the blue. I get it; it can happen to anybody at any time especially just before the deadline. _But_ I am the Captain and I’ve been with the team for a long enough time that I would hope that I’d get a little warning if they were thinking of trading me in for a newer model.”

“The Aces are pushing the Salary Cap pretty hard thanks to the Cup wins.” The guy speaking gets a slow, sarcastic nod from Kent in lieu of a sarcastic comment about stating the obvious; he doesn’t seem to pick up on it because he barrels on. “So it’s not a far-fetched possibility. We’re just saying that the rumours had to have started somewhere and usually that’s from within.”

“ _Rumours_. There we have it, folks. Trade deadline is soon so if I end up back here permanently I will welcome you all into the locker room and graciously accept your _‘I told you so’_ s.”

-

The trade deadline comes and goes, Kent Parson is still captain of the Las Vegas Aces. Talk turns to the fact that his contract comes to an end over summer.

* * *

 

3.

Unlike just about every other time the media has spun something completely untrue about him, Kent is expecting this. He is fully aware of the expectations surrounding the first time he will play on an opposing team to Jack Zimmermann and when the tweets about a ‘rivalry’ start appearing on his Twitter feed he doesn’t even blink as he scrolls past them.

It’s always been about him and Jack. Even when Jack isn’t around. Hasn’t been around. For what felt like _years_ he felt the pressure of not being Jack, of being a consolatory first pick in the wake of Jack being unable to take what was ‘rightfully’ his. The moment news broke that Jack was going to college and playing NCAA Division 1 Hockey everything became about Kent and Jack in a different way; about how their time as opposition had been delayed and occasionally how Jack was playing better hockey without Kent on his line.

His favourite ever news story about their rivalry was from Deadspin. Being the quality news reporting website that it is, it was reported that Kent’s post-Cup win visit to Samwell had been to rub the victory in Jack’s face even though it was exactly the opposite of what Kent had intended.

Jeff is the first person on the team to bring it up—the rumours, the general topic of Jack—and it’s exactly four days before they fly to Providence for the inaugural Kent vs. Jack game. It happens after practice as they’re walking to their cars and Kent stares at him in disbelief.

“Man, all I’m saying,” Jeff presses, “is that you can’t let this Jack thing go to your head. You know that you’re good—you’re better than him, really—and you shouldn’t second guess that.”

“You been reading internet stuff?” Kent asks, opening the trunk of his car and heaving his bag in. “I’m not worrying about whether or not I’m better than Jack. I don’t care.”

“It’s hard though, right? I mean, you wanted him to play here with you but now you’re preparing to face off against him-”

Kent shakes his head.

-

It becomes an actual issue when Virginia calls. Granted, as his sister, she calls for dramatically different reasons. Her worries about the rivalry are more founded than other people’s—she knows their history and how _everything_ affected him around the time of the draft—but it still sets Kent’s teeth on edge.

“It’s nothing,” he says for what feels like the millionth time. Kit Purrson is, unfortunately, feeling the brunt of his agitation as he pets her relentlessly—he’s not petting her rough or hard, he would _never_ , but he’s not giving her any opportunities to leave.

“Okay.” She doesn’t believe him, he can tell. “Don’t let it become something.”

“You need to cancel that Google alert you have for my name.”

“ _I do not have a Google alert for your name!_ ” she shrieks, defensive in a way she can only be when she has been caught out. “You’re my baby brother, I’m just looking out for you. Maybe call Jack?”

Kent feels his palms go clammy and a sweat break out on the back of his neck. There might be no rivalry, but Jack has made it very clear that they are not friends.

 

* * *

 

4.

Kent wants everybody to know that he has never _skipped_ practice. He has been _absent with very good reason_ exactly three times since he was drafted. He supposes that’s the reason why he’s all over the internet— **again** —after he had to fly back to New York to attend his grandmother’s funeral.

“You could just tell them why,” Tony, Virginia’s husband, suggests.

“Or they could get their heads out of my ass and stop giving a shit,” he suggests back. Others might feel uncomfortable swearing in such a scenario, Kent believes that his grandmother would be proud for his casual behaviour.

“You simultaneously have the best and worst reputation of any player in the league. I really think you could change it if you just spoke to the people who asked the questions-”

“Dude,” Kent says as he drops his hand firmly onto Tony’s shoulder. He doesn’t look at him, just continues to stare at the food that has been put out for his family post-service. “I wish it was that easy.”

Sure, things might get easier if he would just tell them about the funeral, that would solve at least one problem, but he’s really quite over media outlets thinking they are entitled to information on every aspect of his life. Someone will inevitably post a photo of the service—he isn’t even given the luxury of assuming that won’t happen—and he won’t have to say anything about it. He and Nicola get along fine but they would get along better if he was more willing to make statements.

When he turns his phone on after speaking to his extended family and sitting with Virginia, there are enough texts coming through to cause a delay in the tone. The texts he gets from the team are, at least, funny. Amongst the best are the rookies working together to send variations of ‘why don’t you love us?’ and Jeff making sure he knows how much better the weather is in Vegas.

There are missed calls from numbers he associates with radio stations or online blogs and he stares down at them, his hand tensing around his phone because he knows that there’s every chance he is going to need a new number.

 

* * *

 

5.

**_Kent Parson, First Openly Gay NHL Player_ **

_This morning the hockey world woke up to a very unexpected tweet from Las Vegas’ Stanley Cup winning captain, Kent Parson. In what was clearly a drunken tweet, riddled with spelling errors and content he would perhaps been otherwise unwilling to share, Kent Parson ‘came out’. The tweet is yet to be deleted and it cannot even be said whether Parson knows he sent it or not. Nobody at The Aces was available for comment. Updates coming as soon as possible._

_-_

_Without any word from Kent Parson or anybody from The Aces organisation, players all throughout the league have posted their support on various social media platforms. The likes of John Tavares, PK Subban, the Edmonton Oilers as an organisation and so many more have all come to Parson’s defence in the face of some pretty disparaging fan comments. It’s good to see the players all rallying together. A lot of people seem to be waiting for a comment from Jack Zimmermann because they played together in juniors._

_-_

**_Jack Zimmermann, Second Openly Gay NHL Player_ **

_If you’ve been following along with the Kent Parson story, we have something to add. Just now, less than 72 hours after Kent Parson’s tweets, a photo has surfaced on Twitter of Jack Zimmermann and his college teammate Eric Bittle. The photo doesn’t appear to be an accident so now begins the waiting game for comments from either Zimmermann and Parson themselves or from their teams._

_-_

_At a press conference this morning, Kent Parson fielded questions about his own sexuality before being shown the aforementioned photo of Jack Zimmermann and his assumed boyfriend. A reporter took his phone, showing the photo, to Parson who proceeded to yell at the room asking why he would know anything about Zimmermann or why it was anybody’s business. Before he left the room he sent out an important message for any kids who might be in his situation: you can play._

-

_You Can Play has gained two valuable assets in Kent Parson and Jack Zimmermann who have pledged to continue playing hockey as long as they are able and to be ambassadors for the organisation—the first LGBT pro hockey players to do so._

 

* * *

 

+1

Summer is good to Kent. Summer means a vacation. Summer means Marty.

He wonders a lot about how the one thing nobody seems to find out about is the one thing that is actually true. They got close when he outed himself but nobody else can take credit for that story, really.

It’s been a few months since The Tweet—the online hockey community decided that it deserved capital letters shortly after it happened—and Marty came along in the middle of the Media Shit Storm—Kent bestowed capital letters upon that one.

“What’s got you thinking so hard?”

Marty’s hand wraps lightly around Kent’s wrist and Kent moves easily towards him, stepping between open legs. He lets his arm be moved over Marty’s shoulder and moves the other to do the same.

“I want to tell people about you.”

“Yeah?” Marty asks, his eyes softening and the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

Kent’s heart stutters and it takes him a moment to speak. “It feels right.”

“You aren’t doing it for me, are you?” Marty asks, his hands squeezing at the base of Kent’s ribs. “I wasn’t lying when I said there’d never be an ultimatum.”

“No, I know. I love you, though, and I want everyone to know it.”

Kent feels himself being tugged closer and soon Marty’s head is buried in his chest and Marty’s arms are locked tightly around his waist. Kent raises his hands to entangle them in Marty’s curls and just holds them there, feeling Marty’s breath through his shirt. They stay like that for what is realistically a few minutes but what feels like hours.

Marty is the one who pulls away first, to look up at Kent in such a way that Kent considers never moving ever again. Hockey be damned.

“I love you, too.”

Kent screws his eyes shut but exhales a laugh through his nose. “I wasn’t supposed to say that yet. I was going to tonight after dinner. It was going to be super romantic. Guess I fucked that up, huh?”

“I liked this way better.”

-

It’s decided that an Instagram post is the best way to go about sharing their relationship because Kent is both original and classy. In a testament to his originality and class, he had enlisted the help of a very confused Australian to take a profile shot of them cuddled on the beach—Kent between Marty’s legs with his back to Marty’s chest.

He doesn’t even caption it because there’s something fun about _purposely_ sending people into a tizzy when he knows for certain that he can, and will, fix it before he goes home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it this far!
> 
> 1\. DarkWaterFalls, I hope you enjoyed this and that it fit with what you were looking for.
> 
> 2\. I wrote a thing for Swawesome Santa 2015 ([Kent Parson is Kind of a Big Deal](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5370545)), which is what section 5 discusses. My friend who beta'd this for me assures me you don't have to have read it for that section to make sense. If that's not the case, go read it? :)
> 
> 3\. Title is from I Want You Back by NSYNC because why not.
> 
> 4\. I am a firm believer that Jack is bi, not gay, but without an actual comment from Jack the media are highly unlikely to think about that on their own.
> 
> 5\. Kent's sister is named Virginia and goes by Gin and her husband is Tony because if they were famous their ship name would be Gin & Tonic.


End file.
